sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice. good saturday afternoon from miami, florida, i'm craig melvin. we are coming to you live from our msnbc station here wtvj. this is the first day of in-person early voting in florida. we'll talk about what all that means throughout the next hour and a half, two hours. earlier today, the reverend al sharpton held a rally to get folks to the polls in florida.

all part of a coordinated effort to get people to vote early. the push began earlier this year after forces opposed to early voting tried to restrict how many days the polls would be open. >> when they cut back on early voting days, when they stopped the sunday before election day, some of us got real nervous. we are going to take this lemon and make lemonade. >> tomorrow morning begins the push to get church goers to cast their ballots after they leave their sunday service. it's called souls for the polls. we are going to be in gainesville tomorrow for one of those get your souls to the polls event. we'll have a lot more from the campaign trail in a few moments. first, let's get the very latest on hurricane sandy. we've been tracking the hurricane as she makes her way up the east coast states of emergency in effect for seven

states, connecticut just the latest to declare. want to check in with one of our reporters on the ground there. what can he tell us? >> the governor just held a press conference here where he declared a state of emergency. he says this could be one of the worse storms connecticut has seen in decades and wants the town on the shoreline to be ready to evacuate. just a few hours ago, the governor partially activated the operation center at the armory. he's ordered hundreds of national guardsmen to be ready because their help will likely be needed. he told us winds to keach 80 miles per hour and last for 36 hours. 600,000 people could be without power and he's also expecting severe flooding for towns from greenwich to east haven. he wants them to be ready to evacuate tomorrow. again, the governor wants everyone to be on high alert and get ready to evacuate. back to you. >> thank you so much for that

report. back to politics now. as both campaigns pound the trail with just ten days to go till the election day, one eye on the election and the other eye on hurricane sandy, take a look at this map here. both campaigns spanning out across the battleground states from florida to new hampshire, and we are going to visit all of them over the next two hours. president obama just wrapping up remarks in nashua, new hampshire, moments ago, hitting governor romney over what he calls a one-point economic plan. >> folks at the top get to play by a different set of rules than you do. they get to pay lower tax rates. outsource jobs. they want to let wall street run wild, make reckless bets with other folks' money. >> governor romney campaigning right here in battleground

florida alongside senator marco rubio, government headed to his second event of the day in the sunshine state. he addressed voters in pensacola earlier this afternoon. once again, taking it to president obama. >> he promised his would be a post partisan presidency. we've watched him over these last four years and he's been devisive and demonized almost any group that opposed him. >> both governor romney and vice president biden canceled planned trips tomorrow to virginia as hurricane sandy starts to close in there. the governor rescheduling his visit to virginia will campaign instead in the must-win state of ohio. if the buckeye state is governor romney's must-win, same can be said for president obama in pennsylvania where the latest "philadelphia inquirer" poll has the president up by a sizable margin. governor romney has narrowed the lead to six points there.

49-43 in pennsylvania. mitt romney's running mate is on the about us hoeding across ohio. congressman paul ryan on a two-day eight-stop trip through the critical battleground state calling on voters to support the republican ticket. nbc news correspondent ron mott on the bus with the vp nominee. i understand you just arrived in circleville, ohio? >> reporter: we are behind schedule by about 40 minutes, i would say. paul ryan just finished up a quick brief address with supporters outside lindsey's bakery. i'm told it's world famous. they've got pumpkin donuts they put on the bus here. we have two more events in about 120 or so miles left to go. this is a must-win for the campaign. that's the way they're positioning it. ohio senator rob portman said he can't see this republican ticket

winning the white house without winning here in ohio. no republican has ever done that. stakes are high here clearly. as you mentioned, governor romney is going to be here tomorrow. hadn't planned on it, but they canceled all the events in virginia tomorrow where it looks like they are holding their own in the polls there. obviously are down here in ohio. the latest cnn poll was out a few days ago. the president's got a four-point lead, 50-46 here. they are working hard here. the campaign tells us they are going to have governor romney and/or paul ryan on the ground in ohio every day up till election day. >> ten straight days. quickly here, ron, i'm always fascinated with enthusiasm in turnout for these guys. what has the turnout been like over the past few days for paul ryan? >> the turnout today has been strong. it's a great day. there are a couple of hundred folks out here. they've been enthusiastic. they are fired up about this ticket. now it's a matter of seeing who has the better ground game to

get voters to the polls. >> romney and ryan, are they going to be campaigning together tomorrow in ohio? >> they will. they've got three stops across the state tomorrow on the bus. we expect that the crowds will probably are getting in fair notice the governor will be here, as well. we'll see bigger crowds than we would have otherwise. >> ron mott on the bus with congressman paul ryan in ohio. thank you, sir. do appreciate that. democrats are relying on women voters to help propel president obama to a second term. governor romney surging. he's nearly even with the president among registered female voters, a number that puts the proposed gender gap into question here. let's bring in our panel. beth, lynn, good afternoon to both of you. beth, let me show you one more number from your poll if i could put it up.

president obama's 16-point lead with women on the economy. now a four-point disadvantage. how worried should democrats be? >> very worried. if this is actually going to bear out, it's a disaster for the democratic ticket. president obama underperforms with men, particularly white men at such a large degree that he needs to overperform with women. the obama campaign is really questioning these polling figures saying that the president is still well ahead with women. it's unclear. we are seeing that trend in basically all the polling across the board. that he's lost a lot of ground with women since the first debate. the president has to make up that deficit with women if he's going to win. there is no other way. his deficit with men is so large. >> lynn, for women that are still undid he sided, the handful of women who might be undecided, we heard the economic message from governor romney, heard the president's fiscal message, coupled with his stance on women's issues, as well. which is having the greater pull

on those independent women voters right now? >> i would tell you it's a breakdown. i agree with beth the obama campaign does question the figure. the whole thrust of the appeal until these last bit of time, he had been basically on jobs and the economy. that is what the romney campaign thinks trumps any issues on reproductive health. in most recent days, partly because of some of the blunders by republican candidates out there and statements, you've seen a new emphasis by the obama campaign appealing to women has been in charge of their reproductive health. president obama had a video out where he just said women should be allowed to make their own health choices. part of that is to shore up support among women voters, which is their absolute key constituency. >> one thing i would say, craig, what's interesting is that president obama had done such a good job and the campaign of portraying mitt romney as an

extremist on women's issues and on many issues that women care about. when the first debate came along, governor romney looked moderate. he looked much different than the portrayal of governor romney through the obama campaign's ads. that's what's given women another look at governor romney. and to make decisions about whether he thinks he is the demon obama is trying to portray him as. >> quickly here before i let you get out of here, i want to talk about florida for a second where i am. leading florida newspapers now making the presidential preferences known. they all endorsed governor romney. two of those papers, the "orlando sentinel" and "sun sentinel" endorsed mr. obama in 2008. what happened? >> some of those endorsements is that the high expectations set

in the area of post partisanship and obama was vulnerable on that part of that is a theme in the closing days now by the romney campaign. >> we are going to check in with you both later this hour. also want to ask you whether newspaper endorsements matter in i more. we'll get to that later in the 3:00 hour. thank you so much. up next what can drive a college kid out of their dorm room into a polling booth? what does it take? we'll talk about it. we've got two political leaders from the campus of the university of florida. this is a big deal because the gators are playing the dogs today. to get a guy from university of florida, yeah, this is msnbc, the place for politics. a shad? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older.

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big day for politics in the sunshine state. i am in miami, florida, on this saturday afternoon. we are here because it's the first day for in-person early voting. traditionally early vote has been a real strength for democrats, primarily. this time around, the romney campaign says it's working to overcome the gap here. here to talk about that and more, match slap political director to former president george w. bush and a romney supporter and rnc surrogate. good afternoon to you, sir. >> great to be with you, craig. >> polls in florida show the race mighty close. how tough will it be for romney to carry the state if democrats win the early voting battle by a significant margin? >> governor romney really needs to win in the state of florida. the early voting, you characterized that right. it's been a democratic strength. as a matter of fact, in 2008, the obama team had a 10%

advantage on early vote nationwide. what we are seeing in these battleground states and across the country in this cycle is that that advantage is still there but much smaller, less than 4% advantage to the democrats so far in early voting. what the republicans are trying to do in key states like florida, especially ohio, is just do everything they can to improve upon their performance four years ago and mccain's performance four years ago. to have a really vigorous get out the vote effort on election day. >> i want to continue this conversation about early voting. let's move to ohio now. "time" magazine found this week that among voters in ohio who have not yet cast ballots, the race is tied 45%-45%. among those who already voted, the president has a 30-point edge. in 2008 about 1/3 of ohio voters cast their ballots early. how worrisome is that to the

romney team? >> if those numbers were accurate, that is a very strong for the obama team. he had a 20% advantage in ohio in early vote in 2008. so far, the numbers that the republicans are tracking show that advantage to be less than 6%. it's different from that poll. as you know what happens in these polls, they are calling people and asking them whether or not they voted early or not. you can get some wild answers that are divergent in some of these polls. we look at the numbers. the republicans and. romney team expects to be behind an early vote and believe they can carry ohio on election day. >> the get out the vote effort, part of the ground game we spent time talking about historically. president obama also had an advantage in that category. he's got more field offices here in florida than governor romney, more field offices in ohio than

the governor does. i continue to hear folks say that mitt romney, that his ground game is so much better than it was four years ago. how are we measuring that? >> first thing we've got to remember, and i make this screw-up, too, this is a different candidate than four years ago. this is not john mccain, this is mitt romney. when it comes to on the ground activities, that's the first fact to remember. if you look at poll after poll, republicans and conservatives are excited about their nominee, especially after his performance at the debates. that's the first step. second step is that some of the best veterans in our party at the rnc with rick wily, at the romney campaign are running the ground efforts. it's a vanity statistic to say how many paid staff you have in the state. that's important, but also important is the enthusiasm and who is managing it. if you talk to the obama people. i was in texas asking obama people involved in the ground

game there. is it the same feeling as in 2008? this is not the same. >> based on early numbers we are seeing in terms of relatively voting, whether it's ohio, iowa, here in florida, if we are using early voting as a gauge for enthusiasm, imperical evidence would suggest the president has a substantial advantage. >> you're right, but it's the benchmark. what republicans are trying to do is outperform what they did four years ago. they don't expect to eclipse him. when you see republicans are trailing on early vote, i would say to my team, don't get despondent and don't get overconfident. republicans are setting themselves up for a big victory and i think that is what is going to happen in ohio. >> thank you so much for being with us. appreciate your time. >> thanks, craig. could young voters make all the difference this year? the latest pew poll shows that.

among registered voters 18 to 29 years old, the percent claiming they will definitely vote, down nine percentage points from 2008. in florida, early in-person voting started a few hours ago. how likely are young voters to show up early or at all? i'll be live in gainesville, florida, tomorrow. not for the post gator/dog party. it's a big college town there. good afternoon to both of you. thanks for being with me. young people notorious for putting things off till the last minute. are you seeing any indication that we might be surprised by the early voter turnout among your peers?

>> i think we'll see a large early vote on campus. we've seen huge enthusiasm this morning, me as well as 30 other youths were at the supervisor election office at an 8:00 a.m. voting. it is saturday and also florida/georgia saturday, that speaks volumes to the kind of enthusiasm we are seeing from students on campus. what are you guys doing to get voters to the polls there? >> well, we are raising awareness for early voting tables on campus. we have a cardboard cutout of mitt romney students can take a picture with if they agree to vote early and stand with mitt. we encourage people to come vote when they get back after the game. >> you're letting folks take a picture with cardboard mitt

there? >> college students have a lot on their plates. there is the possibility they may not choose to vote at all. take a look. >> i hope every young person who is listening don't believe this idea your vote does not matter. in 2000, in gore versus bush, 537 votes changed the direction of history. in a profound way. the same thing could happen here. >> billy, is that a message resonating with you and your peers? >> that is absolutely a message resonating with us. if you look at some of the classrooms in florida, that number president obama said, 537, there are classrooms at the university of florida larger than that. thinking a single class at the university of florida going out to vote can make the difference who is going to lead in our country for the next four years. we are pretty much working every single day to make sure we can get and talk to every single

student to encourage them to get out to vote early. >> katie, these final days of the campaign, president obama making several stops. you saw mtv there, these stops geared toward young audiences. in addition, mtv, "the tonight show" earlier this week, "the daily show" last week. governor romney hasn't appeared on late night tv since march. he's not doing cool interviews with jon stewart and any other folks you kids enjoy so much. why not? what do you think gives there? >> i think that he is trying to reach the young voters in other ways. just yesterday his wife anne stopped in gainesville. i got to meet with her. he's letting his message sink in other ways. he is focusing more on the economy. i think this is a message reaching students without having to go through mtv and leno. he is reaching them in other ways. he is active on the social

media. the campaign is in general. i think he's reaching voters still. >> really quickly here, just five, ten seconds from each of you. a lot has been made of enthusiasm among young voters. billy, i assume this is your first time being able to vote? >> this is my first time voting for president, yes. >> are you as enthusiastic as you think some folks were four years ago who are your age? >> i'm incredibly enthusiastic. talking about the work that goes into getting students out to vote on campus, it's all worth it in the end. the type of progress we've seen the last four years is so incredibly important to not only me but so many other students on campus. we will be out there every day to safe guard those four years of progress and work for four more years of improvement and reform. >> katy, as enthusiastic? >> i think the democrats are not as enthusiastic as electing

obama as they were in 2008. i think more will vote for romney. >> i know how big a deal it is to get two college students on a saturday afternoon. i do appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> thank you. go gators. >> that is something we can all agree on. whoever said there were no free rides? or was it lunch? what's the big idea next. seth carney works boston area renaissance fairs, haunted houses and night clubs. he hawks from his bone shop cart. he hooks, engages and sells through performance and mirroring customer temperament. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need?

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every ride but calls it his way of giving back to a community that has been good to him. his words. he said he thinks most of his election day riders will be seniors, but stresses his service is for everybody and anybody that doesn't have a ride. he's not the only one offering a lift. yellow cab of little rock, arkansas, giving free round trip rides to voters over 60, but unlike ramirez, his drivers will actually be getting paid. pastors have to sign vouchers for each trips. an extra stop at the grocery store or something like that is going to cost you. in iowa, that all-important battleground, the regional transit authority of northwest iowa offering free election day transportation for voters of all ages. get on the bus. we are at $2 billion. $2 billion raised for this presidential election and counting. where's it all going? how will it impact the future of

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or go to walmart.com for details. i'm richard lui at msnbc in new york. we'll go back to craig melvin in miami in a moment. two car bombs have reportedly killed at least 23 people in baghdad. these attacks took place in the shiite neighborhood during an islamic festival. south carolina governor nikki haley confirmed that international hackers are at the root of cyber attacks targeting the palmetto state. almost 400,000 credit and debit card numbers are at risk here. anyone who filed a south carolina tax return since 1998 is being urged to find out whether or not their information has been affected. the death toll in the meningitis outbreak climbed to 25. 338 cases have been reported in 18 states. according to the cdc, the

infection is not contagious and only people who received the injections are thought to be in danger. more news later for you. let's send it back to craig melvin in miami. >> thank you, sir. appreciate you, richard lui. all eyes on hurricane sandy. the east coast bracing for a direct hit. the storm already being felt off the north carolina coast. let's check in with nbc meteorologist dylan drier who is tracking the storm's whereabouts right now. what can you tell us? >> this is still a category 1 hurricane. it has winds right now up to about 75 miles per hour. it's all about the direction. right now it's moving to the northeast, but it is still going to take that turn to the northwest. he look how huge this storm is. clouds extend from florida up to new jersey already. we have wind gusts up to 28 miles per hour now in virginia beach. north carolina 36 mile-an-hour gusts. the lighter rain starting to move onshore. it's moderate at times. the heaviest of the rain is

still offshore. this storm is do for example to take that northwest turn because of that area of high pressure it is blocking this storm from going anywhere but to the north and west. somewhere between delaware or new jersey we will see this storm make landfall. that doesn't make a difference because the storm is so huge and has such strong winds with it, that no matter where it makes landfall, we will end up with about four to eight inches of rainfall, higher amounts from 10 to 12 inches of rain. we'll see beach erosion, coastal flooding, inland flooding and the biggest concern will be power outages. the ground will be soft, leaves on the trees. once those winds start gusting up to 85 miles per hour, there is no doubt we will see power outages that last through the weekend and maybe beyond. >> dylan dreyer, appreciate that. presidential campaign past the $2 billion mark from

traditional sources and super pacs. this will be the most expensive presidential campaign in history. what does it mean for our democracy? thank you, sir. also really appreciated the map work earlier. that was cool, thank you. >> i'm always happy to do it if there are two things i love to geek out on it's the map and ad spending. >> let's go with your second geekout here. the ad spending. let's talk about where the bulk where all this money is going. spending, ad spending for tv and radio across the states, nearly $920 million. in florida right here in the sunshine state, somewhere around $174 million, i've been told. it's going to hit $1 billion? >> look at that graphic we had just up. $919 million already. we had just crossed $900 million just on friday. the amount of money they are

pouring in this upcoming week, $100 million. it's a record, three straight weeks of records and ad spending. everybody talks about who is moving money away from what resources. they are not taking resources away from anything. all these groups, campaigns, outside groups are flush with cash and they are just dumping it in. florida, ohio and virginia have seen the most ad spending by far, 56% of all the ad spending, $517 million in just those three states. >> we spent a lot of time talking about super pacs. how much have they brought in? what is their lasting impact going to be, do you think? >> they've got a significant impact in this race. if you think about it, the president's campaign has spent over $300 million. by far the biggest single spender. sounds like a lot of money and it is. he's being outspent by romney and outside groups that are

supporting him because of those outside groups. almost 2-1 now. romney is further down on the list. he's finally started to spend some of that money post convention. those outside groups have been pouring money in. especially in a place like wisconsin this week which has about four of the top ten markets just 2 week outside groups are bringing it to levels we haven't seen so far in this campaign. >> when it comes to electoral maps and ad spending, dominico is our expert. >> ten days, craig. >> ten days. one big factor in this expensive race, the hundreds of millions of dollars from outside groups. free to spend unlimited sums, thanks in part to that citizens united decision from the supreme court in 2010. a new pbs frontline documentary, big sky, big money, takes a look

at a senate race where this is all playing out in montana. >> the supreme court put the elections in the hands of big corporations and big money. >> montana, the surprising battleground over campaign finance. >> somebody is buying the state out. >> more ads, more spending, more negligentivity. >> it's these outside groups. >> it's necessary for the process. >> we are not seeing where the money is coming from. >> what is more important to this country than free speech? >> with me now, correspondent for "frontline" and host and senior editor for public media's marketplace. good saturday to you. montana not usually considered a media capital by any measure. how did it become a battleground of campaign finance? >> here's the thing. that senate race we were talking about, that senate race will

control the fate of the u.s. senate. montana has or had, i should say, one of the strictest campaign finance laws in the country. we went out there to see what kind of effect all this outside money that's coming in. it's not just in the senate race. it's in down ballot races, local races, state, congressional and state legislative races. that's why you go out there. you discover real quick the people in montana don't want outside money. they don't want people telling them what to do. they don't want outside groups independently influencing campaigns. they just want people to leave them alone and let them make up their own minds, you know? >> what is fascinating to me about what's happening in montana is here you had a state, here you had law makers trying to do something about campaign finance reform and now you've got all these groups that managed to find ways around it. >> in 1912 the state of montana passed the corrupt passages act,

the strictest finance campaign reform in the country. it was brought as a challenges to citizens united. supreme court had a second look via this montana case and said we are going to stay with citizens united. we think there is no corruption if there is independent expenditure, if all this money you and your prior guests were talking about, if it's independent of campaigns and candidates, what we found was some of these independent groups are using that money to manipulate campaigns, to help run campaigns torque coordinate with campaigns, which the supreme court says they are not allowed to do. >> pbs billing your documentary about being the impact big money is having on america's democratic process. we hit the $2 billion fund-raising mark in this presidential election. what impact do you think all this money has on our democracy? >> here's the thing. if you ask some of the people we

talked to for this documentary, we talked to the guy, the lawyer behind citizens united. he has a corner store front office in terra haute, indiana. i spent the day with him. he believes we need not less money, tighter campaign finance laws but more money. his line is, you people complain about outside groups in american politics. how can you have an outside group in american politics? that's what it is. money the supreme court has said is speech in a political context. these guys who are opposing campaign finance laws believe money fundamentally is speech. i asked jim bob does our democracy work better? he believes that it does. what you have to ask yourself though is does it matter where the money is coming from? somebody has $10 million to give but only gets one vote, is that the same as somebody who can give $100 and have one vote? there seems to be a distortion. >> kai, a fascinating story indeed. appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> all right, take it easy.

>> sarah palin refusing to back off after comments about the president, some comments she made about the president were met with anger. >>. >> up next, katy perry trying a novel way to get out the vote. okay, that looks great. were you profitable last month? how much money is in your checking account? have the browns paid you for their addition yet? your finances are scattered all over the place. mm-hmm. what are your monthly expenses?

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with the voting machine, as you can see there. wouldn't want any mistakes, i suppose. sarah palin once again courting controversy in the closing days of this contest. the former vp nominee recently came under fire for calling president obama's response to the benghazi attack a, quote, shuck and jive, a quote that many feel is racist. she said "i would appreciate it if the media refrained from using words and phrases like igloo, eskimo pie and when hell freezes over, as they might be considered offensive by my extended native alaska family." >> with friends like these, mitt romney has his work cut out for him. has the republican party itself becoming a drag for candidates on the ballot this november? ♪ you don't own me how do you make america's favorite recipes? just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo.

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welcome back. on this saturday, i'm craig melvin here in the sunshine state. we're in florida because today was the first day of in-person early voting in florida. we'll talk about what all of that means in just a few moments. governor romney making his final pitch to undecided voters across this country. but while the republican nominee continues to make his case for the white house, there are republicans in senate contests that have provided quite a few headaches for the campaign. so will mitt romney's party work against him on election day? let's bring back our panel. reporter for the associated press, ladies, thanks for coming back. lynn, let's look at the numbers here. the republican party's favorability rating under water according to our latest national nbc news/wall street journal poll. there are the numbers right there. how much of a problem is the party itself for mitt romney,

lynn? >> well, i think it's the specific morse than the general republican label right now. and of course it goes down to those battleground states, indiana, the indiana senator nominee's comments about rape is just not helpful in any context, as was akins' comment. we replayed leslie gore's 1963 hit just a few minutes ago in this run-up to "you don't own me". the democrats are picking that up as an anthem in the closing days of the campaign. >> lynn, thank you so much. for paying attention to our music. we spend a lot of time selecting that. so it's good to know it's making a difference. beth, you know, lynn just brought up something. and i've asked this question in various forms and no one has been able to answer it. so we'll try you. why do republicans insist on talking about social issues at all if they know those are the issues with which they -- among

independent voters? >> a lot of republicans really care about social issues. the whole effort to pretend that social issues aren't a part of the campaign, it really is just that. it's pretending. people do care about economic issues more than anything else, but lot of republicans are social conservatives. they consider views on these matters within the mainstream and important. and several elected officials feel that way and have no qualms about talking about them because they think the issues are as important as other issues. it's pretense to suggest that that's not something that is going to be on the mind of voters. it does present a problem i think for the republican party going forward, because younger people do not agree with the more conservative line on social issues. certainly the party is becoming more -- much more -- very much of a white party, while the country is becoming more diverse. the republican party has a very strong message on the economy. but if it continues to sort of hang in discussion of social issues and other issues that don't resonate with younger

voters and a more diverse population, they're going to have a problem going forward. >> let's look at some of these senate races here. it looks like richard mourdock after his comments, it looks like he is really in trouble. his team says it's going to be close. joe donnelly's camp says meanwhile their internal polling has donnelly up seven points. how much trouble is richard mourdock in there, lynn? >> well, i think when you have a potential game-changer in the closing days of the election, it just isn't good. it just gives you -- it exposes a flank. so i would be big trouble. this is called big trouble. technical political term, yes. >> beth, is this one of those situations whether it's richard mourdock or todd akin, is this one of the situations where us, and by us, i mean folks inside the bubble, the media bubble, are we making a bigger deal out of it than voters in those

respective districts? is this something that is not going to make as much as a difference, perhaps as we're thinking it might? >> well, we won't know until the election is over. but, i mean, when a candidate for the united states senate makes a provocative comment like that, we have to report it. we have to discuss it. it's surprising. it's eye-opening, and it's going to be something that voters will hear a lot about because, yes, we are talking about it. but ultimately, the race is in the hands of the voters, they may decide they side with richard mourdock or todd akin for other issues, or perhaps they agree with him on those issues. it is a little unusual that rape has become this big buzzword in politics this year. it's very surprising and hard to understand why anybody thought that was going to be a gad idea. >> yeah, and lynn, beth just brought up todd akin there. he has clawed hi way back in missouri. i want to put up this poll here if we've got it. st. louis post dispatch has him within the margin of error now against claire mccaskill who is off the trail, tending to a sick

mother. is there enough time between now and aikin's rape comments? has there been enough time that folks have forgotten about him? can they win this thing? >> they might not have forgotten, or either people have forgiven or he has been able to increase his base vote who people want to defend him. this is the reason in politics why people often resist any call to drop out or to quit because people do get second chances, and this is an example where he did find a second act, even after mitt romney urged him to drop out. now the race is competitive. >> beth fouhy, lynn sweet, i always appreciate your insight. thanks for being with me on a saturday. >> thanks, craig. hurricane sandy already having an impact on the presidential campaign. we'll tell you what it's changing for candidates and where that monster of a storm is headed now. and i'm here in the sunshine state in florida where early in-person voting started today. up next, how to win florida by more than 537 votes, hopefully.

hopefully it won't be that close this time around. ♪ all night about the beach to the break of down, i'm going to miami, welcome to miami ♪ ♪ olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet?

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